Q&AQ&A with Jason IsbellIF YOU GOWhat: Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit with Nikki Lane.When: 10 p.m. today.Where: Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market St.Admission: $15.Phone: 267-4644.Websites: www.rhythm-brews.com, www.jasonisbell.comDISCOGRAPHY2007: “Sirens of the Ditch”2008: “Live at Twist & Shout 11.16.07″2009: “Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit”2011: “Here We Rest”
When circumstances forced guitarist Jason Isbell to cut back on touring in 2010, he took the opportunity to return home to Alabama and reconnect with his roots.
“I think it helped me … to be around people who weren’t traveling musicians or music fans or promoters or agents or anything like that,” he said during a phone interview. “It was nice to spend time with people who live normal, day-to-day lives and get to know them better.”
Isbell said he cut back drastically on his 200-date annual touring calendar because of a lack of new material to perform. During his hiatus from the road, he used the time to work on the band’s fourth album, “Here We Rest,” which was released April 12.
Tonight, Isbell will take the stage at Rhythm & Brews with his band, The 400 Unit. Isbell said he anticipates his set will include material from his days with The Drive-By Truckers as well as his four albums with The 400 Unit, including about seven songs from “Here We Stand.”
The new album features largely character-centric material that relates stories inspired by the time Isbell spent at his childhood home in the Muscle Shoals region of North Alabama.
For all their connection to that region, Isbell said he was surprised by how well they spoke to a wide range of audiences when he started touring more than two months ago.
“People are so similar,” he said. “When you write about a certain level of desperation, it’s not necessarily a Southern desperation. It’s not unique to the place we’re from.
“It’s easier for me to write when I use an actual place. I feel that’s important in the style of writing I do. I think it translates really well because there are a whole lot of similar people around the country and around the world, really.”